Application of Volterra Series Analysis for Parametric Rolling in Irregular Seas

Abstract

Parametric roll is a phenomenon in which there is a large rolling motion of a ship even when the ship is moving into head seas with no direct excitation. It is a nonlinear dynamic phenomenon of a ship rolling system with nonlinearities in the stiffness as well as the damping terms. Parametric roll of container ships in head seas is a relatively new problem, which has gained lot of importance after the catastrophic incidence of APL China in 1998. Analysis of parametric roll of container ships in regular head waves has been studied extensively. However, the ships do not encounter regular waves in the ocean. So, it is necessary to study how important parametric roll is in irregular seas. To study this, it is first important to model the variation of metacentric height in irregular waves, which is nonlinear as a result of the influence of underwater geometry and the motions of the ship in a seaway. In this work, the change of metacentric height (GM) in irregular waves has been modeled using a Volterra series approach. This transfer function for metacentric height (GM) is used to study parametric rolling of ships in irregular waves. Based on this study, roll motion sensitivity to the spectral peak period and significant wave height has been carried out.